St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1887-10-03
HUMAN DEPRAVITY.
No Sympathy With the Common
Form

FORM.
Rev. II. M. Simmons subject at the
First Unitarian church was sHuman
Depravity." He said he had no SYM
pathy with the common form of the doc
trine, as taught in the various church
confessions, and reaffirmed by the gen.
eral evangelical alliance when they as
serted the cutter depravity of the human
race in consequence of the fall" Still
less sympathy had he with the attend
ant doctrine that this depravity is to be
punished with what the Westminster
confession calls ''grievous torrents in
soul and body, without intermission in
hell fire forever" We must not blame
the earnest men who framed that con-
fession, nor the honest people who still
keep it, as Howard Crosby says his
whole denomination do. But the doc
trine itself we ought to deny and de-
nounce in the name of religion. For the
doctrine that deity Furnishes the evil
which he has himself caused, and with
cruelty worse than the wickedest
man on earth ever used, asserts
a far deeper depravity in God
than i'll mankind. We ought to
deny it, even if declared on every page
of the Bible. But in reality it is not
taught in the Bible at all. Jesus him
self denies it. Instead of teaching that
men are born depraved, He takes chill
dren as examples of purity, and says
''of such is the kingdom of God" Nor
did He want children converted; but
the very thing he says about conversion
is to be converted and become as little
children;" converted not away from
human nature, but from an artificial re-
ligion back to nature. Nor does even
the legend of Adam teach any real
fall. 1t does indeed show man driven
from Eden, but it was an Eden of
ignorance. where man was without even
the acknowledge of good and evil. He
was driven out to labor and learn, but
it was an advance, and the Lord Him
self says: behold. man is now become
as one of Us, to know good and evil"
1t was fall upward, to knowledge and
a higher spiritual life-a likeness to
gods. The fall was rise, and mans
depravity was before it instead of after.
This is the kind of fall which history
and science also show-a rise from the
animal to the human and spiritual ma
ture. The real depravity we have to do
with, is that of the old lower animal
nature surviving in us. 1t is present in
all, but ''total'' in no one. The work of
religion is, not to punish it, but to Guilt
vate higher life which may control it.
The method is by education and gentle
influences. Even criminals are not
checked by violent punishments, as all
history shows. In the time of Edward
Ill, when murder was punished so Sc
verely. the proportion of murders in
England was sixteen times as great as
now. Says l.. o. Pike, who has made a
long study of English crime, and writ
ten two volumes on it: '"There is one
golden rule taught by history, with re-
spect to punishment; let them not af-
ford an evil example of cruelty" Still
more with the non-criminal class-the
gentle methods are the best. What
American has had more and better in
fluence than Longfellow? Yet he was all
kindness, and even while abused by
Poe, was lecturing in praise of POe's
poetry. His charity was so great that
when proposed on Harvard visiting
committee, one said: "What would be
brought to find fault with anybody or
anything" His biographer says: "His
whole life was bathed in that love which
fOrgiveS until seventy times seven
times, and as many more if need be-"
Such spirit does more than any COM
pulSion. Men do not like to be driven.
Ripley told of a man who would hoe
corn all day Sunday against the law,
but all Massachusetts could not make
him hoe Oh Monday. CompulsiOn counts
for comparatively little. Gentleness is
mightier than gunpowder. AS the sun
shine in the fable stripped off he trav-
elerS coat sooner than the wind, so the
sunlight of knowledge and warmth of
love strip off the bad habits of men much
sooner than the most rigid laws.